So last night, we (Tucker, Ashley, and myself) saw Surrogates for free at the Studio Movie Grill. I'm not going to review the movie because there's not much to tell. It's your standard sci-fi action movie, and it's only 90-minutes long. If you want to see something like that, you'll like it. Expect more and you won't. Simple as that.
What I'd like to discuss is the world of Surrogates, something I find extremely fascinating. Ever since I saw the first preview for the movie, I have been asking myself how realistic that movie is. Whether or not most people would choose to live their lives through a robotic surrogate if that option were available. Whether or not I would choose such an option.
At first, I didn't think people would be willing to trade actual experiences for the "ease and safety" that such a thing would provide. When I asked Tucker what he thought, he answered (in a confidence that only Tucker has) that he thought everyone would do it.
And as I started reading about the movie and the graphic novel it was based on, I started to agree with him. I read that the original writer, basically, came up with the idea when he realized that people were getting fired from their jobs and divorced because of their "online identities." That if someone could get wrapped up in a life that doesn't exist, what if they could put a face and body to that identity? What if they could be that identity 24/7?
The movie only glances by this topic. A woman at the beginning turns out to be a man, and a couple people on a subway train have blue skin. Because surrogates would give people the chance to be as out there as possible, whether you wanted to be completely different or simply felt like you were born in the wrong body.
And I think people would love that. People that have always wanted to be a few inches taller could have that done easily. Women concerned about their breast size could have bigger ones added to their surrogates. Fat people could become athletic. And so on.
Not to mention the in-movie explanation for the beginning of the surrogates - disabled people could live happy, normal lives through their surrogates.
So we've established that a segment of the population would love the idea. What about people who are perfectly happy with themselves? Surrogates would allow their human operators to perform superhuman tasks (enhanced strength, increased agility, improved senses, etc). Athletes would probably be interested, and professional leagues would have to outlaw surrogates or use them exclusively. The movie hints at an Extreme Football league, indicating the way the writers thought that would go.
And let's not forget injuries. Tom Brady's surrogate could tear its ACL, and he could just get a new one for the next week. Heck, he could probably have a backup one on the sidelines, just as if he'd torn his uniform.
Then there's thrillseekers and law enforcement officers. Anyone who faces death in their normal lives would want a surrogate. Because, while I'm sure the endorphins are a little less wild when you know you're safe, I'm guessing the experience of skydiving would still be great. And I'm sure there'd be a lot of people who would love to actually plummet to their (surrogate's) death if they knew it was safe. And all fire fighters and police officers would probably use surrogates, just because it takes away the risk of death. More (human) lives would certainly be saved if the saviors didn't have to worry about their own safety.
So there are a few more segments of the population that would use it. What about everyone else?
Tucker seems to think that some people would want to use surrogates some of the time. Maybe you don't feel well, but you want to go to work. You could send your surrogate to work while you "rest" in your home. Maybe a woman doesn't want to worry about putting on makeup and getting dressed to run to the store, and she sends her pre-made-up surrogate instead.
I believe these people would start with just some small thing, and I don't think they'd intend to use their surrogates full-time. But then people would get lazier, I think. They'd be attracted to the ease of things. The sick guy might still feel a little ill so he sends in his surrogate for the rest of the week. Just until he feels 100%.
Then there are the other factors. Maybe I send my surrogate to the grocery store, and I get some looks from a cute girl. I might think that my surrogate is more attractive than me, and I might send it out again to see if that's the case.
But here's my prime theory. I think after a couple months of part-time use of a surrogate, there will be some noticeable changes. With less exercise, the human operator might put on some weight. Maybe there are a couple of blemishes on the face that the surrogate doesn't have. Maybe there's some hair loss or some grey hairs.
Suddenly, the person who was okay with their body isn't as okay with it. And why try to work off the weight when you can just use the surrogate? Why cover the blemishes with makeup when the surrogate doesn't have them in the first place? Don't have hair? The surrogate has plenty.
And now a part-time user of a surrogate is a full-time user.
Then there's things like peer pressure and social norms. If the majority of people are using surrogates, the minority will start to crumble. It takes strength and courage to go against the norm, and a lot of people don't have it. And, perhaps, people who were against surrogates would be tempted to give it a shot. And after a few months, like the people in the example, would be using one all the time.
And I think the world would end up being a lot like the world in the movie. There would, of course, be people who would be against them, and these people would (literally) stick to their guns. But since the surrogate-using majority has the power, these humans would probably live in more impoverished situations like in the movie.
And I'm sure the conflict would eventually get violent.
So there you have it. A way that surrogacy, as described in the movie, could sweep the world. How our world could turn into the world of Surrogates.
It doesn't seem that difficult when you think about it. And, honestly, that scares me a bit. There's something very creepy, at least to me, about a world where robots are running the world. Even if there are humans controlling them.
And here's my final point - how different is the world of Surrogates from the world of The Matrix? Both worlds have immobile humans in charge of AI-based versions of themselves. Both worlds have a small human resistance movement trying to save people that don't even think they need to be saved. In fact, both worlds have people who don't want to be saved (think of Cypher from The Matrix).
One world is less sinister, but I think they're pretty similar in other ways.
So there you have it. Surrogates isn't a great movie, but I think the world it gives us is thought-provoking. Because I watched a little story on the "science behind the movie" and they said we're pretty close to that kind of technology. In fact, they said, it's just a matter of being able to make the robots look more like the humans they represent.
So when it happens, don't say I didn't warn you. Or, I guess, the movie makers. Or the author of the graphic novel. Even if they warned you first, remember that I did too.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Drew's Day - 9/26
* Note - All times are approximate *
9:45am - Drew wakes up because it's way too bright in the room to try and sleep. He's also been trying to get back to sleep for about half an hour after spending most of the morning sleeping in 15 minute increments.
10:30am - Ashley and Drew confirm the train schedule with Woody, planning their trip to Fort Worth to watch the TCU-Clemson game at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
10:35am - Drew calls Keely to check and see if she's coming to watch the game. She says she will drive to the stadium, hopefully arriving before halftime.
11:00am - Needing to meet the DART train at 11:15, Drew and Ashley leave the condo.
11:00am-11:15am - Dallas traffic.
11:15am - Drew and Ashley are paying for DART tickets when the train comes and leaves. Drew and Ashley realize their only plan is to drive to Union Station.
11:25am - Drew and Ashley, with 30 minutes to make the train, realize there is no parking near Union Station.
11:26am - Ashley runs a red light, and Drew is nearly killed. An annoyed Ashley accidentally gets on the wrong street, and we're forced to drive five minutes out of our way.
11:40am - With only ten minutes to spare, Ashley declares that we aren't making the train. Drew believes.
11:44am - Drew and Ashley park a few blocks away, running towards the train station.
11:47am - Drew and Ashley make the train with a couple minutes to spare. Drew's faith pays off.
11:49am - TRE leaves Fort Worth.
12:15pm - Guy on the train goes around asking if he can use someone's cell phone. One man says that he doesn't give his phone to strangers. Ashley says that his iPhone is an iPod Touch. Drew gives the guy his phone because it's a cheap piece of crap. The first man shakes his head, secretly hoping that the guy will steal my phone to teach me a lesson. The guy doesn't steal my phone, but I don't think he completed his call either.
1:20pm - After a fascinating discussion about religion, Drew gets tired of waiting and decides that it's time to eat.
1:30pm - Tim and Ben show up. Everyone eats.
1:45pm - One car collides with another in the parking lot. Hilarity ensues.
2:15pm - Everyone leaves Railhead for the DMC.
2:35pm - Everyone arrives in their seats at the DMC, and the game begins.
3:15pm - Keely arrives at a game where TCU has taken a 7-3 lead.
4:00pm - Clemson take a 10-7 lead, and Keely starts to believe that she is not good luck.
4:10pm - Keely meets Ryan Thomas. Ryan and Woody loudly argue with each other. Ashley and Drew realize that Keely is having a truly TCU experience.
4:15pm - Everyone returns to the stadium to finish the game.
5:45pm - TCU, having regained the lead, holds Clemson on fourth down twice for the win. Clemson's D-bag fans finally stop counting.
5:50pm - Not wanting to drive alone, Keely offers Drew and Ashley a ride to the American Airlines Center for the Stars' game.
6:19pm - Drew and Ashley arrive at the AAC - four minutes after their train would've left Fort Worth.
7:00pm - Stars' game starts.
9:45am - Drew wakes up because it's way too bright in the room to try and sleep. He's also been trying to get back to sleep for about half an hour after spending most of the morning sleeping in 15 minute increments.
10:30am - Ashley and Drew confirm the train schedule with Woody, planning their trip to Fort Worth to watch the TCU-Clemson game at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
10:35am - Drew calls Keely to check and see if she's coming to watch the game. She says she will drive to the stadium, hopefully arriving before halftime.
11:00am - Needing to meet the DART train at 11:15, Drew and Ashley leave the condo.
11:00am-11:15am - Dallas traffic.
11:15am - Drew and Ashley are paying for DART tickets when the train comes and leaves. Drew and Ashley realize their only plan is to drive to Union Station.
11:25am - Drew and Ashley, with 30 minutes to make the train, realize there is no parking near Union Station.
11:26am - Ashley runs a red light, and Drew is nearly killed. An annoyed Ashley accidentally gets on the wrong street, and we're forced to drive five minutes out of our way.
11:40am - With only ten minutes to spare, Ashley declares that we aren't making the train. Drew believes.
11:44am - Drew and Ashley park a few blocks away, running towards the train station.
11:47am - Drew and Ashley make the train with a couple minutes to spare. Drew's faith pays off.
11:49am - TRE leaves Fort Worth.
12:15pm - Guy on the train goes around asking if he can use someone's cell phone. One man says that he doesn't give his phone to strangers. Ashley says that his iPhone is an iPod Touch. Drew gives the guy his phone because it's a cheap piece of crap. The first man shakes his head, secretly hoping that the guy will steal my phone to teach me a lesson. The guy doesn't steal my phone, but I don't think he completed his call either.
12:45 - The elderly woman sitting across from us, who we've spoken to a few times on the trip, says goodbye with a fist bump. That's right, she offered to blow us up. And, yes, I typed "up." Grow up.
1:20pm - After a fascinating discussion about religion, Drew gets tired of waiting and decides that it's time to eat.
1:30pm - Tim and Ben show up. Everyone eats.
1:45pm - One car collides with another in the parking lot. Hilarity ensues.
2:15pm - Everyone leaves Railhead for the DMC.
2:35pm - Everyone arrives in their seats at the DMC, and the game begins.
3:15pm - Keely arrives at a game where TCU has taken a 7-3 lead.
4:00pm - Clemson take a 10-7 lead, and Keely starts to believe that she is not good luck.
4:10pm - Keely meets Ryan Thomas. Ryan and Woody loudly argue with each other. Ashley and Drew realize that Keely is having a truly TCU experience.
4:15pm - Everyone returns to the stadium to finish the game.
5:45pm - TCU, having regained the lead, holds Clemson on fourth down twice for the win. Clemson's D-bag fans finally stop counting.
5:50pm - Not wanting to drive alone, Keely offers Drew and Ashley a ride to the American Airlines Center for the Stars' game.
6:19pm - Drew and Ashley arrive at the AAC - four minutes after their train would've left Fort Worth.
7:00pm - Stars' game starts.
7:01pm - It is obvious that the Stars don't have it.
8:30pm - The Stars are already down big when four people arrive. Two guys and two girls. Both of the girls are attractive (although one is trashier than the other). I simply note this because the cuter of the two girls was with this really shrimpy small guy. This girl was tiny, but she was still bigger than her "boyfriend." I say that because, despite his Smurf-like qualities, she was all over him.
8:32pm - Drew contemplates taking this boyfriend out with a single punch, fully confident of his ability to win such a fight. The only issue is with the other guy (aka "The Backup"), who might be able to take Drew and Ashley combined. Plan abandoned.
8:45pm - The foursome leaves their seats, having been in them for almost a full period. As they're leaving, I notice that the trashy one is wearing really tight and really stretchy pants, probably made of spandex. Then, the man sitting next to Ashley tells him, and I quote, that "his wife had a dump last week bigger than her." He gets hit, but everyone has a nice laugh.
9:15pm - Stars down 5-0. Seriously, guys? I know you're bringing in a new offense, but you might want to work in a goal. And some defense.
9:30pm - Game is over. Thank God that hockey is only 150 minutes long. We walk over to the train station hoping that a train will go the right direction. We're told the DART is going back to downtown.
9:35pm - Train arrives. We get on.
9:40pm - We're still sitting on the train. Ashley starts getting upset.
9:45pm - Ashley is fully bored and annoyed again. It's been a long day, the train is slow, and he had to watch (bad) hockey for two and a half hours. Drew understands.
10:00pm - The train drops us off at the West End, just a couple blocks from the parking garage.
10:15pm - Drew and Ashley arrive back at the condo.
Final Record
One hockey game (live) and one football game (partially live).
Two meals - good barbecue and a stale hamburger/fries from the AAC
Record - 1-1, although I hesitate to give the Stars credit for the loss. You have to participate to lose.
Total spent - $20 on transportation (train tickets and parking in downtown). About $40 total on food.
One train missed. Two successfully boarded.
Two heart attacks and one near certainly-fatal car crash avoided. But narrowly.
Two elderly fist bumps.
All in all, a full and interesting day.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Sore
About a week ago, Ashley and I started on a new workout plan. Bob Sturm, through George DeJean, recommends it, and I thought I'd give it a try. He basically says that you should do pushups, straight for a minute, for three reps. Don't worry about counting them...just make sure you finish the rep.
It doesn't sound very hard. After all, a minute is just a minute. But Bob says that, by the first thirty seconds, you'll want to switch to "girl" pushups. And that's pretty much true. And by the end of the minute, you're going to wish there was something called "baby girl" pushups.
I mixed in two sets of crunches in between each rep of pushups, both to get an ab workout and to give my arms a rest. Even though it's only about 10 minutes of actual work, it's a heck of a workout. The first time I did it, I pretty much collapsed on the final pushup. My abs were sore, and my arms hurt. I pretty much assumed that I would die, right there on the floor, because I was completely immobile.
I did it again last night, after a few nights off, and I've been sore all day. But I feel like I'm going to stick with it. I'm playing tennis one-two times a week (although the rain is killing me in that area) for my cardio, and this will work out a couple other areas on my body. I'm not sure I've ever been "in shape" in my entire life, but I might be as close as I've been in a while.
It doesn't sound very hard. After all, a minute is just a minute. But Bob says that, by the first thirty seconds, you'll want to switch to "girl" pushups. And that's pretty much true. And by the end of the minute, you're going to wish there was something called "baby girl" pushups.
I mixed in two sets of crunches in between each rep of pushups, both to get an ab workout and to give my arms a rest. Even though it's only about 10 minutes of actual work, it's a heck of a workout. The first time I did it, I pretty much collapsed on the final pushup. My abs were sore, and my arms hurt. I pretty much assumed that I would die, right there on the floor, because I was completely immobile.
I did it again last night, after a few nights off, and I've been sore all day. But I feel like I'm going to stick with it. I'm playing tennis one-two times a week (although the rain is killing me in that area) for my cardio, and this will work out a couple other areas on my body. I'm not sure I've ever been "in shape" in my entire life, but I might be as close as I've been in a while.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Looking Back
Tonight was TCU's first home game, and I went, of course. Even though I'm approaching the four-year anniversary of my graduation, we've always sat in the student section. It's more fun to be there because the students, obviously, are more into the game than the alumni section.
And it's great - I love it. One thing has bothered me every time I've gone, and I imagine it always will. And that's the girls in the crowd. I'm not really bending the truth when I say that the great majority of girls at TCU, especially those at the football games, are cute. Really cute. And while I'm starting to feel like an old man, that's not really the way I'm taking this blog.
It make me wonder what the heck I was doing for four years.
Because I don't really have to ask myself whether or not the girls were this cute back in the day. They were - I know this. Hundreds of girls who I'd love to date, and there were probably even a few that would've been okay dating me.
Did I take advantage of this overstock of incredibly cute girls? Take advantage of the generous male-to-female ratio that I was a part of?
No. Not at all.
And, looking back, I have to ask myself what I was doing. I realize I'm not exactly a Romeo in these matters, but it seems like I didn't really make an effort. And at the end of the day, romance-wise, I think I wasted an enormous opportunity.
Because from the first time we step into kindergarten class, we're constantly meeting people. You meet new classmates in elementary school...eventually knowing almost everyone in your grade. When we got to middle school, there were all the kids from the other elementary schools that you could meet in all your new classes. With eight classes a day, you were certain to meet a dozen or so new people every year. At least.
And then, in high school and college, you're meeting people from other grades. Freshman meeting sophomores, seniors meeting juniors, and so on. We meet several hundred people in a matter of 12 years, and there's not a whole lot of work that goes into it. You meet them all in the first day of school, and over the course of the year, they're all lab partners or study partners or at least the girl that sits behind you in algebra class.
But then you get out of work....and it all seems to stop. Once you meet your coworkers in the first couple of weeks of work, that's about it. Unless your job has huge turnover, there might just be a dozen new workers every year.
And by the time you're out of college, you've made most of your important friends. You already know all of their friends and siblings, so you're not really meeting anyone new.
It seems like, unlike in school, if you want to meet anyone, you have to go out of your way. You're meeting friends of friends of friends, or you're going up to someone new in a bar or a restaurant. Something that used to be so simple and ample has become something difficult and rare.
Back in school, if you wanted to meet that cute girl you saw in the cafeteria, there was a good chance that you'd have a class with her. And, if not, the school was probably small enough where you were connected to her in less than six degrees of separation.
Now, you have to do most of the legwork yourself. Yes, that usually just means going up and talking to her, but it didn't even need to be that hard in school. Like I said, most of the meeting in school was forced.
So...it all makes me wish that there was some way to go back with the information I have now. To take my 25-year-old brain and put it inside of my 18-year-old body. Because I know, for a fact, that I missed opportunities along the way in college, and I'm pretty sure I could've done better if I knew then what I know now.
Of course, as I sit here thinking about 18 at 25...I can't help but think that some of them were wasted. And then I start thinking about my life now. Will 32-year-old Drew be pissed off that 25-year-old Drew worried so much about 18-year-old Drew? Is this just an F-ed up cycle that we're all doomed to relive over and over again?
And so I'm going to do my best to avoid that. Live in the now. Enjoy what's ahead of my instead of worrying so much about what was behind me. Whether or not I missed the boat in college is irrelevant at this point. Whether or not I get on the boat now is fully under my control.
Hopefully that's what I remember most about these times.
And it's great - I love it. One thing has bothered me every time I've gone, and I imagine it always will. And that's the girls in the crowd. I'm not really bending the truth when I say that the great majority of girls at TCU, especially those at the football games, are cute. Really cute. And while I'm starting to feel like an old man, that's not really the way I'm taking this blog.
It make me wonder what the heck I was doing for four years.
Because I don't really have to ask myself whether or not the girls were this cute back in the day. They were - I know this. Hundreds of girls who I'd love to date, and there were probably even a few that would've been okay dating me.
Did I take advantage of this overstock of incredibly cute girls? Take advantage of the generous male-to-female ratio that I was a part of?
No. Not at all.
And, looking back, I have to ask myself what I was doing. I realize I'm not exactly a Romeo in these matters, but it seems like I didn't really make an effort. And at the end of the day, romance-wise, I think I wasted an enormous opportunity.
Because from the first time we step into kindergarten class, we're constantly meeting people. You meet new classmates in elementary school...eventually knowing almost everyone in your grade. When we got to middle school, there were all the kids from the other elementary schools that you could meet in all your new classes. With eight classes a day, you were certain to meet a dozen or so new people every year. At least.
And then, in high school and college, you're meeting people from other grades. Freshman meeting sophomores, seniors meeting juniors, and so on. We meet several hundred people in a matter of 12 years, and there's not a whole lot of work that goes into it. You meet them all in the first day of school, and over the course of the year, they're all lab partners or study partners or at least the girl that sits behind you in algebra class.
But then you get out of work....and it all seems to stop. Once you meet your coworkers in the first couple of weeks of work, that's about it. Unless your job has huge turnover, there might just be a dozen new workers every year.
And by the time you're out of college, you've made most of your important friends. You already know all of their friends and siblings, so you're not really meeting anyone new.
It seems like, unlike in school, if you want to meet anyone, you have to go out of your way. You're meeting friends of friends of friends, or you're going up to someone new in a bar or a restaurant. Something that used to be so simple and ample has become something difficult and rare.
Back in school, if you wanted to meet that cute girl you saw in the cafeteria, there was a good chance that you'd have a class with her. And, if not, the school was probably small enough where you were connected to her in less than six degrees of separation.
Now, you have to do most of the legwork yourself. Yes, that usually just means going up and talking to her, but it didn't even need to be that hard in school. Like I said, most of the meeting in school was forced.
So...it all makes me wish that there was some way to go back with the information I have now. To take my 25-year-old brain and put it inside of my 18-year-old body. Because I know, for a fact, that I missed opportunities along the way in college, and I'm pretty sure I could've done better if I knew then what I know now.
Of course, as I sit here thinking about 18 at 25...I can't help but think that some of them were wasted. And then I start thinking about my life now. Will 32-year-old Drew be pissed off that 25-year-old Drew worried so much about 18-year-old Drew? Is this just an F-ed up cycle that we're all doomed to relive over and over again?
And so I'm going to do my best to avoid that. Live in the now. Enjoy what's ahead of my instead of worrying so much about what was behind me. Whether or not I missed the boat in college is irrelevant at this point. Whether or not I get on the boat now is fully under my control.
Hopefully that's what I remember most about these times.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
The Wire
**** Note ****
The following blog will contain major spoilers for the television show, The Wire. If you have not seen the show, stop reading right now. Then, you need to obtain a copy of the show. You can borrow it from a friend, rent it from Netflix, get it from Blockbuster, illegally download it, DVR it when it comes on, or get it when it comes back around OnDemand. I don't care how you watch it, but you owe it to yourself to do it.
**** /Note ****
I first heard about The Wire a couple of years ago. I had heard great things about it, but I'd never really heard much specifically. I knew that it was a cop show, and that a lot of people swore by it. I decided, when I got the chance, that I'd watch it.
Then, in 2007, I was looking around OnDemand, and I saw that the first season was available there. Unfortunately for me, it was only available for two more days. That meant, over the course of a weekend, I would have to watch 13 episodes.
And I think that was important because I was forced to watch four or five the first day. I wasn't working at the time, and I had nothing better to do...so I watched.
And for those of you who've seen the show, you know it starts out slow. It takes its sweet time to get you involved, and it doesn't give a crap whether it catches your eye or not. It does it's own thing, and if you don't like it, it doesn't really care.
If I'd watched the show any other way, it might not have worked. The first episode is rather unremarkable, and it doesn't grab you like other shows might. But after you've watched a couple of them, you start to see the genius. And by the time I was done with that first day, I was hooked.
For those of you who ignored my warning above, the Wire is a show about Baltimore. It focuses on the drug trade, but it's really about modern America. How American cities work, how they fail, and how people get by. The Wire takes you from abandoned buildings full of corpses to the high ceilings of City Hall. From the corners of the ghetto to the ports. Both cops and drug dealers are shown as they are - darkness and light included. There are cops you'll hate and dealers you'll love. The show simply shows the world as it is.
And it's probably because the show was written by a journalist. There isn't a whole lot of bias in the show, and it's received countless positive comments from the people who live in that world. The people in the show talk, walk, and act the way that their real-life counterparts do. For a lot of us, it's the closest we'll ever come to that lifestyle.
Throughout the show, you get to see the drug trade's impact on several different parts of the city. Season one is simply the trade itself. Season two brings in the ports, where the drugs arrive from overseas. Season three involves politicians - where we get to see where the cops get their orders - corrupt or not. Season four is about the educational system - how some kids turn into dealers and killers and some are able to escape. And season five revolves around the media - the way we get to see that world.
Season one's storylines bleed throughout the rest of the series. The cops at the beginning are shown throughout, even though the life on the street is constantly changing and evolving.
I'm bringing all of this up because, within the last six months, I've introduced the Wire to Ashley and Tucker. One day, while playing tennis, I suggested that Tucker needed to watch it. I knew it was exactly up his alley, and I knew he'd love it.
He was skeptical at first, although I'm not really sure why. A couple months before, I'd recommended Dexter to him, and he loved it. Over time, I wore him down, and we started to watch.
After one episode, he wasn't impressed. Like I said, the pilot isn't anything great, but I'd warned him that the show starts slow. After two or three episodes, he believed me. And when we watched the finale one week ago tonight, he officially declared it his favorite show of all time.
I have a feeling I've earned some extra credit in Tucker's mind, and he'll believe me a little more next time I tell him to watch something.
Now, what is it that makes the Wire so great? There's not a whole lot to the show - it isn't full of action or suspense. Every episode doesn't end on a dynamic cliffhanger, and bullets aren't constantly flying. In fact, throughout the whole series, almost none of the main police officers fires a gun. The body count of major characters is remarkably low.
I simply think that I love the Wire because it's like watching a dramatic documentary. I know that everything that happens on the show has a basis in real life. The creator worked with detectives, and he saw all the life on the street. I'm currently reading a book he wrote (Homicide: Life on the Killing Streets) and a lot of the things from the show come right off the pages.
Most of the characters are based on real-life people. Some of them even appear on the show (the real life Jay Landsman having the biggest role). Snoop Pearson (who Steven King thinks is one of the most chilling female characters in TV history) is from West Baltimore. She doesn't play herself (same name, though), but I'm sure she knew people just like the real character.
And when, in season five, I saw cops using a photocopier as a lie detector to get a young gunman to confess his part in a murder, I laughed out loud because I knew that it'd been done in real life. The book I'm reading confirmed it. Baltimore detectives actually did that in the 1980s, and that makes things so much funnier.
Tucker and I made Tuesday night Wire night for most of the year. Around season three, Ashley finally got involved, and he liked it just as much as us.
But if you asked me why I loved the show, I'd respond with a single character - Omar. Omar Little is one of my favorite characters of all time (for the record, President Obama agrees - Omar is his favorite character and the Wire is his favorite show), and he's just so layered.
Let me paint you a picture of Omar. He's a stick-up artist, which basically means that he makes his living robbing drug dealers. He carries a big sawed-off shotgun, and he terrorizes West Baltimore drug dealers for most of the show. From the second you see Omar on the show, you love him because he's the odd man out. He's involved in the fight against drugs, but he plays by his own rules.
But there are things about Omar that are just awesome. He's one of the most violent characters on the show, but he makes it a point to curse as little as possible. He's also one of the hardest characters on the show, but he also happens to be gay.
That's right - my favorite character on the Wire is gay. I said it.
The thing about Omar is that you know he's on borrowed time. He's going against some tough M-Fers, and they all want his head. You simply expect him to die every time he's on the screen, but every season, he makes it out okay. He even comes out on top a couple of times.
He endeared himself to me in season two when he appears in court...a half-assed-tied tie around his neck. When Maurice Levy, the slimy drug lawyer, is attacking him, Omar fights back with one of the greatest lines on the show. When Levy tries to discredit Omar as a witness, saying he benefits from the drug trade, Omar says that Levy is the same as him. Levy, shocked that someone would say such a thing, can't respond as Omar says the classic line.
"I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase."
When a contract killer comes to get Omar, the stick-up artist shows his cajones. With a gun trained on him, Omar slowly grabs his own weapon...turning a lopsided standoff into a Mexican one.
And, in season five, Omar still does a lot of damage on a busted leg. But season five is also where Omar meets his end.
I heard about Omar's death before I saw it on screen. Dan on BaD Radio (SportsRadio 1310, the Ticket) spoiled it after coming back from commercial, and it hit me hard. I was still a few episodes behind, and it really hurt to hear. But even though I knew, I was still surprised to see how it actually went down.
Omar had a hundred lives on the show, taking on kings of the street, muscle, and bounty hunters. But when he's trying to buy some cigarettes in a mini mart, Omar is gunned in the head...by a little kid. His death doesn't come in a heroic fight at the end of an episode - it happens rather unremarkably in the middle of an episode.
And while most shows would've focused on it, the Wire goes out of its way to show that the death has little impact on the streets.
Because, you know what, that's how it works. We grow attached to Omar, but the street moves on. At the end of the day, he's just another body in Baltimore. And in real life, people die when they let their guard down - not in epic Hollywood style.
Like I said, the Wire simply shows us the world as it is.
But that's one of the themes of the show - life on the street moves on. Things might change, but "the game" doesn't die. Dealers are killed or imprisoned, but the drugs still are sold. It really shows you that the war on drugs is never ending. The cops will always fight, but the drugs will always be on the streets.
Sad - but real.
I'll probably have some more thoughts at some point, but I wanted to give the show its due. It's simply fantastic, and I can't give it enough credit. Watching the show the second time was just as great as the first, and I was able to appreciate a lot more. I recognized characters better, and I followed the story a little more closely the second time around.
So mad props to the Wire. One of the best shows ever.
Or, as Tucker says, the very best.
The following blog will contain major spoilers for the television show, The Wire. If you have not seen the show, stop reading right now. Then, you need to obtain a copy of the show. You can borrow it from a friend, rent it from Netflix, get it from Blockbuster, illegally download it, DVR it when it comes on, or get it when it comes back around OnDemand. I don't care how you watch it, but you owe it to yourself to do it.
**** /Note ****
I first heard about The Wire a couple of years ago. I had heard great things about it, but I'd never really heard much specifically. I knew that it was a cop show, and that a lot of people swore by it. I decided, when I got the chance, that I'd watch it.
Then, in 2007, I was looking around OnDemand, and I saw that the first season was available there. Unfortunately for me, it was only available for two more days. That meant, over the course of a weekend, I would have to watch 13 episodes.
And I think that was important because I was forced to watch four or five the first day. I wasn't working at the time, and I had nothing better to do...so I watched.
And for those of you who've seen the show, you know it starts out slow. It takes its sweet time to get you involved, and it doesn't give a crap whether it catches your eye or not. It does it's own thing, and if you don't like it, it doesn't really care.
If I'd watched the show any other way, it might not have worked. The first episode is rather unremarkable, and it doesn't grab you like other shows might. But after you've watched a couple of them, you start to see the genius. And by the time I was done with that first day, I was hooked.
For those of you who ignored my warning above, the Wire is a show about Baltimore. It focuses on the drug trade, but it's really about modern America. How American cities work, how they fail, and how people get by. The Wire takes you from abandoned buildings full of corpses to the high ceilings of City Hall. From the corners of the ghetto to the ports. Both cops and drug dealers are shown as they are - darkness and light included. There are cops you'll hate and dealers you'll love. The show simply shows the world as it is.
And it's probably because the show was written by a journalist. There isn't a whole lot of bias in the show, and it's received countless positive comments from the people who live in that world. The people in the show talk, walk, and act the way that their real-life counterparts do. For a lot of us, it's the closest we'll ever come to that lifestyle.
Throughout the show, you get to see the drug trade's impact on several different parts of the city. Season one is simply the trade itself. Season two brings in the ports, where the drugs arrive from overseas. Season three involves politicians - where we get to see where the cops get their orders - corrupt or not. Season four is about the educational system - how some kids turn into dealers and killers and some are able to escape. And season five revolves around the media - the way we get to see that world.
Season one's storylines bleed throughout the rest of the series. The cops at the beginning are shown throughout, even though the life on the street is constantly changing and evolving.
I'm bringing all of this up because, within the last six months, I've introduced the Wire to Ashley and Tucker. One day, while playing tennis, I suggested that Tucker needed to watch it. I knew it was exactly up his alley, and I knew he'd love it.
He was skeptical at first, although I'm not really sure why. A couple months before, I'd recommended Dexter to him, and he loved it. Over time, I wore him down, and we started to watch.
After one episode, he wasn't impressed. Like I said, the pilot isn't anything great, but I'd warned him that the show starts slow. After two or three episodes, he believed me. And when we watched the finale one week ago tonight, he officially declared it his favorite show of all time.
I have a feeling I've earned some extra credit in Tucker's mind, and he'll believe me a little more next time I tell him to watch something.
Now, what is it that makes the Wire so great? There's not a whole lot to the show - it isn't full of action or suspense. Every episode doesn't end on a dynamic cliffhanger, and bullets aren't constantly flying. In fact, throughout the whole series, almost none of the main police officers fires a gun. The body count of major characters is remarkably low.
I simply think that I love the Wire because it's like watching a dramatic documentary. I know that everything that happens on the show has a basis in real life. The creator worked with detectives, and he saw all the life on the street. I'm currently reading a book he wrote (Homicide: Life on the Killing Streets) and a lot of the things from the show come right off the pages.
Most of the characters are based on real-life people. Some of them even appear on the show (the real life Jay Landsman having the biggest role). Snoop Pearson (who Steven King thinks is one of the most chilling female characters in TV history) is from West Baltimore. She doesn't play herself (same name, though), but I'm sure she knew people just like the real character.
And when, in season five, I saw cops using a photocopier as a lie detector to get a young gunman to confess his part in a murder, I laughed out loud because I knew that it'd been done in real life. The book I'm reading confirmed it. Baltimore detectives actually did that in the 1980s, and that makes things so much funnier.
Tucker and I made Tuesday night Wire night for most of the year. Around season three, Ashley finally got involved, and he liked it just as much as us.
But if you asked me why I loved the show, I'd respond with a single character - Omar. Omar Little is one of my favorite characters of all time (for the record, President Obama agrees - Omar is his favorite character and the Wire is his favorite show), and he's just so layered.
Let me paint you a picture of Omar. He's a stick-up artist, which basically means that he makes his living robbing drug dealers. He carries a big sawed-off shotgun, and he terrorizes West Baltimore drug dealers for most of the show. From the second you see Omar on the show, you love him because he's the odd man out. He's involved in the fight against drugs, but he plays by his own rules.
But there are things about Omar that are just awesome. He's one of the most violent characters on the show, but he makes it a point to curse as little as possible. He's also one of the hardest characters on the show, but he also happens to be gay.
That's right - my favorite character on the Wire is gay. I said it.
The thing about Omar is that you know he's on borrowed time. He's going against some tough M-Fers, and they all want his head. You simply expect him to die every time he's on the screen, but every season, he makes it out okay. He even comes out on top a couple of times.
He endeared himself to me in season two when he appears in court...a half-assed-tied tie around his neck. When Maurice Levy, the slimy drug lawyer, is attacking him, Omar fights back with one of the greatest lines on the show. When Levy tries to discredit Omar as a witness, saying he benefits from the drug trade, Omar says that Levy is the same as him. Levy, shocked that someone would say such a thing, can't respond as Omar says the classic line.
"I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase."
When a contract killer comes to get Omar, the stick-up artist shows his cajones. With a gun trained on him, Omar slowly grabs his own weapon...turning a lopsided standoff into a Mexican one.
And, in season five, Omar still does a lot of damage on a busted leg. But season five is also where Omar meets his end.
I heard about Omar's death before I saw it on screen. Dan on BaD Radio (SportsRadio 1310, the Ticket) spoiled it after coming back from commercial, and it hit me hard. I was still a few episodes behind, and it really hurt to hear. But even though I knew, I was still surprised to see how it actually went down.
Omar had a hundred lives on the show, taking on kings of the street, muscle, and bounty hunters. But when he's trying to buy some cigarettes in a mini mart, Omar is gunned in the head...by a little kid. His death doesn't come in a heroic fight at the end of an episode - it happens rather unremarkably in the middle of an episode.
And while most shows would've focused on it, the Wire goes out of its way to show that the death has little impact on the streets.
Because, you know what, that's how it works. We grow attached to Omar, but the street moves on. At the end of the day, he's just another body in Baltimore. And in real life, people die when they let their guard down - not in epic Hollywood style.
Like I said, the Wire simply shows us the world as it is.
But that's one of the themes of the show - life on the street moves on. Things might change, but "the game" doesn't die. Dealers are killed or imprisoned, but the drugs still are sold. It really shows you that the war on drugs is never ending. The cops will always fight, but the drugs will always be on the streets.
Sad - but real.
I'll probably have some more thoughts at some point, but I wanted to give the show its due. It's simply fantastic, and I can't give it enough credit. Watching the show the second time was just as great as the first, and I was able to appreciate a lot more. I recognized characters better, and I followed the story a little more closely the second time around.
So mad props to the Wire. One of the best shows ever.
Or, as Tucker says, the very best.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Kanye West
Okay, Kanye West is pretty much insane, and I'm sure a lot of you have heard what he did last night at the VMAs. I don't really care to recount the story, and you can look it up yourself if you want. The story and/or video is pretty funny.
What I'd like to talk about is his apology. This is the apology that he posted on his blog, and since I'm the reason for the teardrops on Taylor Swift's guitar, I figured I'd defend her honor here and re-post it. I'm not going to comment on it because it doesn't need commenting. Just enjoy.
I'M SOOOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM. I SPOKE TO HER MOTHER RIGHT AFTER AND SHE SAID THE SAME THING MY MOTHER WOULD'VE SAID. SHE IS VERY TALENTED! I LIKE THE LYRICS ABOUT BEING A CHEERLEADER AND SHE'S IN THE BLEACHERS! .................. I'M IN THE WRONG FOR GOING ON STAGE AND TAKING AWAY FROM HER MOMENT! ................. BEYONCE'S VIDEO WAS THE BEST OF THIS DECADE!!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FANS IF I LET YOU GUYS DOWN!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FRIENDS AT MTV. I WILL APOLOGIZE TO TAYLOR 2MRW. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!!!! EVERYBODY WANNA BOOOOO ME BUT I'M A FAN OF REAL POP CULTURE!!! NO DISRESPECT BUT WE WATCHIN' THE SHOW AT THE CRIB RIGHT NOW CAUSE ... WELL YOU KNOW!!!! I'M STILL HAPPY FOR TAYLOR!!!! BOOOYAAAWWWW!!!! YOU ARE VERY VERY TALENTED!!! I GAVE MY AWARDS TO OUTKAST WHEN THEY DESERVED IT OVER ME... THAT'S WHAT IT IS!!!!!!!! I'M NOT CRAZY YALL. I'M JUST REAL. SORRY FOR THAT!!! I REALLY FEEL BAD FOR TAYLOR AND I'M SINCERELY SORRY!!! MUCH RESPECT!!!!!
What I'd like to talk about is his apology. This is the apology that he posted on his blog, and since I'm the reason for the teardrops on Taylor Swift's guitar, I figured I'd defend her honor here and re-post it. I'm not going to comment on it because it doesn't need commenting. Just enjoy.
I'M SOOOO SORRY TO TAYLOR SWIFT AND HER FANS AND HER MOM. I SPOKE TO HER MOTHER RIGHT AFTER AND SHE SAID THE SAME THING MY MOTHER WOULD'VE SAID. SHE IS VERY TALENTED! I LIKE THE LYRICS ABOUT BEING A CHEERLEADER AND SHE'S IN THE BLEACHERS! .................. I'M IN THE WRONG FOR GOING ON STAGE AND TAKING AWAY FROM HER MOMENT! ................. BEYONCE'S VIDEO WAS THE BEST OF THIS DECADE!!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FANS IF I LET YOU GUYS DOWN!!!! I'M SORRY TO MY FRIENDS AT MTV. I WILL APOLOGIZE TO TAYLOR 2MRW. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!!!! EVERYBODY WANNA BOOOOO ME BUT I'M A FAN OF REAL POP CULTURE!!! NO DISRESPECT BUT WE WATCHIN' THE SHOW AT THE CRIB RIGHT NOW CAUSE ... WELL YOU KNOW!!!! I'M STILL HAPPY FOR TAYLOR!!!! BOOOYAAAWWWW!!!! YOU ARE VERY VERY TALENTED!!! I GAVE MY AWARDS TO OUTKAST WHEN THEY DESERVED IT OVER ME... THAT'S WHAT IT IS!!!!!!!! I'M NOT CRAZY YALL. I'M JUST REAL. SORRY FOR THAT!!! I REALLY FEEL BAD FOR TAYLOR AND I'M SINCERELY SORRY!!! MUCH RESPECT!!!!!
Friday, September 11, 2009
My 9/11 Story
A week ago, our friend Woody was in town, and we briefly talked about today, the 8-year anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001. He said that, at some point, he wanted to write down his memories of that day so that he could have a record of them in the future. I think that's a great idea, and I'm going to put mine here. I probably won't have this blog in 50 years, but I'll at least have my thoughts written down in one form.
I was a senior in high school on that day, and the first plane hit as I was driving to school. I was listening to the Musers on the Ticket, and right before I headed into the building, they mentioned something about a fire at the World Trade Center. I didn't really think much of it at the time, and I went inside like any other day. My first period class was speech, and we had our class as usual.
With only a few minutes left in the class, our teacher left the room. And when he came back, he told us what had happened. The World Trade Center had been attacked. He did a pretty good job of calmly telling us about it, but he probably could've simply said that our lives were forever changed. Because they were.
Luckily for me, my second and third period classes were both journalism-based classes. Second period was our TV news class, and third period was print. So I spent the first couple of hours after I received the news in front of a television set, watching it all happen. And I'll admit the same thing that many people have said - it looked like a movie. We were so used to seeing images of our buildings being destroyed in film that we immediately thought of that.
My fourth period class was economics, and I can distinctly remember that class. My teacher told us (and I'm summarizing here) that things happen in the world, but it's our responsibility to move on. "Moving on" was going to be a pretty solid theme in the days following 9/11, but it was still going on at this point. Even today, I think it was way too soon to have class.
But it didn't matter - we had economics class that day. While the rest of the nation was in a panic, we talked dollars and cents. Supply and demand. The law of diminishing returns.
And it's a bit ironic, now that I think about it, that the only class I had that day was in economics. Because while the attack was mostly on the American psyche, the biggest physical damage might've been economic.
My next period was lunch, and I went off campus. And all I can really remember is talking to my mom on the phone. I'd heard that the towers had collapsed, and that there were attacks other places. And it seemed like all I did that day was wait for more bad news to happen. Luckily, by that point, all of the attacks were over.
The rest of the day is a blur to me. I don't remember my 6th or 7th period classes, but I know my 8th period class was cancelled. My Pre-Cal teacher acknowledged the importance of the day, and she arranged for us to watch television in the auditorium for an hour.
Then I went home. And the most vivid thing I can remember about September 11 is this intense fear of the unknown. Like many other Americans, I figured this was the beginning of the end. That 9/11 was just the beginning of a brave new world where our naive sense of protection had been shattered. That we'd see attacks rise in quantity and severity. That, perhaps, attacks would kill myself or a loved ones.
On that day, I never would've imagined that I'd smile again. Or laugh again. Or feel safe. I never thought I'd fly on another airplane, securely watch a baseball game in a stadium, or travel abroad. And that fear that I felt was so strong and so real that I imagined I would feel it forever.
Slogans like "we will never forget" were thrown around as brand-new American flags were flown, and I thought it was ridiculous. How would it be possible to forget that day? Those images? That fear?
And here we are, eight years later, and it sometimes feels like a bad dream. And I realize that, for a lot of people, that feeling won't go away. But since 9/11 didn't touch me as closely as it touched others, I was able to heal a bit easier.
And now I don't think twice about getting on an airplane or packing into a stadium. And I think the US government deserves a lot of credit for that restored sense of security. As irresponsible as they seem at times, they've made sure that another 9/11 hasn't happened yet. And if you would've asked me back then whether we would've been hit again by 9/11/2009, I would've laughed.
Eight years? I didn't think we'd make eight days.
And now the "we will never forget" slogans don't seem as ridiculous. Because as we go on with our lives, it gets easier to forget. Even the scar at the World Trade Center itself is healing as we get used to a New York City skyline minus the Twin Towers.
But I think, especially on this day, we need to make sure we take some time to remember that day. Remember the people who died in the attacks - in New York and Washington. Remember the brave firefighters who fought the flames on that day - whether they came back or not. Remember the courageous people on Flight 93 who gave their lives to make sure that another American landmark wasn't hit.
Because as bad as that day was, imagine how it would've been if the White House had been destroyed. Or the Capitol Building. The passengers on Flight 93 are American heroes, and we owe them a lot.
So I encourage you to look back and write down some thoughts from that day. Because one day your children and grandchildren are going to want to know what happened on that day. And while it's still pretty fresh in our minds, I think we should have an accurate record for them.
I was a senior in high school on that day, and the first plane hit as I was driving to school. I was listening to the Musers on the Ticket, and right before I headed into the building, they mentioned something about a fire at the World Trade Center. I didn't really think much of it at the time, and I went inside like any other day. My first period class was speech, and we had our class as usual.
With only a few minutes left in the class, our teacher left the room. And when he came back, he told us what had happened. The World Trade Center had been attacked. He did a pretty good job of calmly telling us about it, but he probably could've simply said that our lives were forever changed. Because they were.
Luckily for me, my second and third period classes were both journalism-based classes. Second period was our TV news class, and third period was print. So I spent the first couple of hours after I received the news in front of a television set, watching it all happen. And I'll admit the same thing that many people have said - it looked like a movie. We were so used to seeing images of our buildings being destroyed in film that we immediately thought of that.
My fourth period class was economics, and I can distinctly remember that class. My teacher told us (and I'm summarizing here) that things happen in the world, but it's our responsibility to move on. "Moving on" was going to be a pretty solid theme in the days following 9/11, but it was still going on at this point. Even today, I think it was way too soon to have class.
But it didn't matter - we had economics class that day. While the rest of the nation was in a panic, we talked dollars and cents. Supply and demand. The law of diminishing returns.
And it's a bit ironic, now that I think about it, that the only class I had that day was in economics. Because while the attack was mostly on the American psyche, the biggest physical damage might've been economic.
My next period was lunch, and I went off campus. And all I can really remember is talking to my mom on the phone. I'd heard that the towers had collapsed, and that there were attacks other places. And it seemed like all I did that day was wait for more bad news to happen. Luckily, by that point, all of the attacks were over.
The rest of the day is a blur to me. I don't remember my 6th or 7th period classes, but I know my 8th period class was cancelled. My Pre-Cal teacher acknowledged the importance of the day, and she arranged for us to watch television in the auditorium for an hour.
Then I went home. And the most vivid thing I can remember about September 11 is this intense fear of the unknown. Like many other Americans, I figured this was the beginning of the end. That 9/11 was just the beginning of a brave new world where our naive sense of protection had been shattered. That we'd see attacks rise in quantity and severity. That, perhaps, attacks would kill myself or a loved ones.
On that day, I never would've imagined that I'd smile again. Or laugh again. Or feel safe. I never thought I'd fly on another airplane, securely watch a baseball game in a stadium, or travel abroad. And that fear that I felt was so strong and so real that I imagined I would feel it forever.
Slogans like "we will never forget" were thrown around as brand-new American flags were flown, and I thought it was ridiculous. How would it be possible to forget that day? Those images? That fear?
And here we are, eight years later, and it sometimes feels like a bad dream. And I realize that, for a lot of people, that feeling won't go away. But since 9/11 didn't touch me as closely as it touched others, I was able to heal a bit easier.
And now I don't think twice about getting on an airplane or packing into a stadium. And I think the US government deserves a lot of credit for that restored sense of security. As irresponsible as they seem at times, they've made sure that another 9/11 hasn't happened yet. And if you would've asked me back then whether we would've been hit again by 9/11/2009, I would've laughed.
Eight years? I didn't think we'd make eight days.
And now the "we will never forget" slogans don't seem as ridiculous. Because as we go on with our lives, it gets easier to forget. Even the scar at the World Trade Center itself is healing as we get used to a New York City skyline minus the Twin Towers.
But I think, especially on this day, we need to make sure we take some time to remember that day. Remember the people who died in the attacks - in New York and Washington. Remember the brave firefighters who fought the flames on that day - whether they came back or not. Remember the courageous people on Flight 93 who gave their lives to make sure that another American landmark wasn't hit.
Because as bad as that day was, imagine how it would've been if the White House had been destroyed. Or the Capitol Building. The passengers on Flight 93 are American heroes, and we owe them a lot.
So I encourage you to look back and write down some thoughts from that day. Because one day your children and grandchildren are going to want to know what happened on that day. And while it's still pretty fresh in our minds, I think we should have an accurate record for them.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Drew at the Movies
I realized last night that I've watched a bunch of movies (both theatrically and at home) in the past couple of weeks. So I think it might be time to do a few reviews.
Eagle Eye
I don't know why, but Shia LaBeouf irritates me. Maybe it's because he's in everything, and maybe it's because he has a great agent (look at his female costars...he has an agent that rivals Dane Cook). But whenever he's on screen, I get a little irritated, and I'm sure that affected the way I watched this movie.
I came in with low expectations, and the movie didn't disappoint. I thought it was generic...to the point of being somewhat boring. I think it was an interesting idea, but that kind of idea is pretty hard to pull off, it seems, because you don't see it done well very often. The characters are both way too trusting of the woman on the phone (I won't spoil it even though the twist is dumb) and not trusting enough over the course of the film. And the whole "twin" thing didn't really work for me.
And in the end, I think the writers of the film just didn't do a whole lot of research. They wrote the movie the way I think I'd write a movie about things that I'm not overly familiar with - simply making assumptions about how things work. And that just comes off as lazy.
I'll give it 2/5 stars. If you're bored and want to turn off your brain, it has pretty explosions.
Traitor
Let me start by saying that Don Cheadle is awesome. I don't think there's a cooler man in Hollywood, and he's always doing something cool. He can play American, and he can play a wide variety of other nationalities. He can do comedy (Oceans' # movies), and he can do drama (Hotel Rwanda). He's one of my favorite actors, and he delivers in this movie.
But outside of that, there just isn't a whole lot to work with. If anyone's seen the episode of LOST from season one called "The Greater Good" - it's the same plot. Good guy Muslim is recruited to work inside a terrorist sleeper cell. It's an interesting plot, but I think LOST did it better, honestly.
I think it's funny that Steve Martin (yes, the comedian) came up with the idea for the movie. And that might be why it doesn't work the way I think it wants to. But the movie basically relies on Cheadle, and he's able to carry it.
I'll give it 3/5 stars because of it. It also features Guy Pearce, who's an extremely underrated actor if you ask me.
Lakeview Terrace
Roger Ebert loved this movie, and a lot of other people hated it. I'm probably somewhere in the middle, but I thought it was enjoyable. The plot revolves around an interracial couple that moves in next to a police officer with some issues, and it turns into a neighbor rivalry.
These kinds of movies are typically comedies, where one guy pulls a variety of pranks on his neighbor, and the neighbor retaliates in his own way. This movie, though, is not a comedy, and the back-and-forth between the two neighbors is a little more sinister but still realistic.
One of the interesting things about the movie is the villain, Samuel L. Jackson, is given just as much of the spotlight as the couple. You're supposed to feel sorry for his character, even as he does his best to terrorize his neighbors. You see him in private moments where he wonders what he's doing, and you're given an explanation midway through the film of his motivations.
It's actually an interesting examination, if not brief and slight, on the status of race relations in the country. The interracial marriage side of things is the catalyst for a lot of the action of the movie, and it's definitely present the rest of the movie. But while Guess Who's Coming to Dinner made it the key element of the film, Lakeview Terrace only exposes the racism when the goings get tough.
There were some annoying parts of the film - I never really felt sorry for Chris (the husband), and I don't think a lot of his motivations were warranted. I guess they felt like, if they were going to make Samuel L. Jackson's character morally ambiguous, they needed to do the same for his enemy. Also, I couldn't help but think that he looked almost exactly like GOB from Arrested Development.
All in all, I'll give it 3/5 stars too. It isn't great, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's worth a watch if you're interested.
District 9
I saw this movie with Tucker and Ashley on Monday, and they both loved it. But when I walked out of the theater, I really didn't know whether or not I liked it or not. And, as I sit on Thursday morning, I'm still not 100% sure about how I feel.
District 9 is a different take on the alien genre. A giant ship, not unlike the ship from V or Independence Day, arrives on Earth to hover over a major city. But instead of New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, or Tokyo...the ship lands over Johannesburg in South Africa. And instead of arriving with guns blazing like in alien invasion films, the alien ship arrives in disrepair, and many of the aliens are starving to death.
So they're taken down to Earth, immediately below their ship, and they're put into slums outside the city. In an obvious connection to apartheid in South Africa, the aliens (called "prawns" in the film) live in terrible conditions, and they're hated by the human citizens of the city. Life for the prawns is significantly restricted, and the film begins with the attempt to forcibly "evict" all of the aliens to a sort of "concentration camp" facility far away from the city.
The movie focuses on an employee of MNU, a corporation that is put in charge of watching over the aliens in the city. Because of this, you get to see a lot of aspects of life in this world - from human intolerance to the deep secrets of the slums themselves.
And while there are a lot of very intriguing aspects of the movie, at the end of it, it's a chase-based action film. And I wondered, as I was watching, how the movie would've worked if the alien part was taken out.
All in all, I think it was a pretty solid film. I don't think it was the A+ movie that Ashley said it was, but I think it was innovative and thought-provoking. I wasn't sure how the short film (Alive in Joburg, directed by the same guy who directed this) was going to translate into a feature film, but they kept a lot of the same documentary-style elements. And I really liked that they did that. It's cool that Hollywood (Peter Jackson, in particular) saw a great short film, and they allowed the director to bring his vision to a mainstream audience.
These guys (Jackson and the director) are rumored to be involved in a potential Halo movie - I hope that happens because I think it would be done well.
Final grade - 4/5
Inglourious Basterds
I'll be honest. I don't really love Quentin Tarentino as much as a lot of people. I think Pulp Fiction is really good, and I enjoyed Kill Bill Volume II. But at the end of the day, I don't really care for the rest of them. I think his films really appeal to film buffs (they're full of references to classic films, both domestic and foreign), and the over-the-top parts of his movies don't work for me.
But I still think they're worth seeing - the only film of his that I haven't seen is Jackie Brown, which is probably the least heralded of Tarantino's films. And we decided to see this movie the day we moved into Ashley's new condo.
And it's long. It's a bit slow. It's extremely tense.
But I think it's also a very-well-made movie. I actually saw it a second time when I visited Fort Worth a couple weeks ago, and I enjoyed it much more the second time around. Basically because, when you're watching it the first time around, you're pretty much waiting for something bad to happen in every scene.
First of all, there are only about five real scenes in the movie, and it's 150 minutes long. Do the math, and each scene is about 30 minutes long. And there are three major instances in the film where something unfortunate happens, but the other shoe doesn't immediately drop. So you're just sitting there, seemingly forever, going through all the possible scenarios in your mind. And since its' Tarantino, you're going over over-the-top scenarios as well.
And so most of the movie, you're waiting to see who's about to die or who's about to show up and ruin everything. And don't get me wrong, it's an interesting cinematic experience, but it's a lot like eating spicy foods. Sometimes it's just so much self-inflicted torture that you can't enjoy yourself.
That's why I definitely enjoyed the film more the second time around. Since I knew what was going to happen, I was able to enjoy the film for what it was. I was able to prepare myself for everything that was coming, and it really made the experience a lot more satisfying.
Like all of Tarantino's films, it's simply beautifully done. The casting was great, and the acting was just superb. Brad Pitt did a great job, and I fell in love with Melanie Laurent as Shoshanna. But Christoph Waltz, in his first American film, really steals the show as an SS soldier named Hans Landa. Every single second he's on the screen is tense, and he has a really brilliant way of giving his character a gentlemanly politeness for such a horrible man.
His performance, alone, makes the movie worth seeing if you ask me. I wholeheartedly expect him to get an Oscar nomination, and I can't imagine how he won't win. He was just great.
And that's why I'll give it 5/5 stars. As long as you go in with the correct expectations (that it'll be tense, that it'll gross you out at parts, that it's a Tarantino-styled film, and that it's 75% subtitled), I think you'll really enjoy it.
All in all, I didn't really hate any of these movies, and depending on your mood, you could probably like all of them. In fact, you'll probably need to be in the right mood to like any of these movies. Because you probably have to be in the right state of mind to see District 9 or Inglourious Basterds.
Feel free to post your own thoughts on each movie - I'm always interested in seeing what other people thought about things I've seen.
Eagle Eye
I don't know why, but Shia LaBeouf irritates me. Maybe it's because he's in everything, and maybe it's because he has a great agent (look at his female costars...he has an agent that rivals Dane Cook). But whenever he's on screen, I get a little irritated, and I'm sure that affected the way I watched this movie.
I came in with low expectations, and the movie didn't disappoint. I thought it was generic...to the point of being somewhat boring. I think it was an interesting idea, but that kind of idea is pretty hard to pull off, it seems, because you don't see it done well very often. The characters are both way too trusting of the woman on the phone (I won't spoil it even though the twist is dumb) and not trusting enough over the course of the film. And the whole "twin" thing didn't really work for me.
And in the end, I think the writers of the film just didn't do a whole lot of research. They wrote the movie the way I think I'd write a movie about things that I'm not overly familiar with - simply making assumptions about how things work. And that just comes off as lazy.
I'll give it 2/5 stars. If you're bored and want to turn off your brain, it has pretty explosions.
Traitor
Let me start by saying that Don Cheadle is awesome. I don't think there's a cooler man in Hollywood, and he's always doing something cool. He can play American, and he can play a wide variety of other nationalities. He can do comedy (Oceans' # movies), and he can do drama (Hotel Rwanda). He's one of my favorite actors, and he delivers in this movie.
But outside of that, there just isn't a whole lot to work with. If anyone's seen the episode of LOST from season one called "The Greater Good" - it's the same plot. Good guy Muslim is recruited to work inside a terrorist sleeper cell. It's an interesting plot, but I think LOST did it better, honestly.
I think it's funny that Steve Martin (yes, the comedian) came up with the idea for the movie. And that might be why it doesn't work the way I think it wants to. But the movie basically relies on Cheadle, and he's able to carry it.
I'll give it 3/5 stars because of it. It also features Guy Pearce, who's an extremely underrated actor if you ask me.
Lakeview Terrace
Roger Ebert loved this movie, and a lot of other people hated it. I'm probably somewhere in the middle, but I thought it was enjoyable. The plot revolves around an interracial couple that moves in next to a police officer with some issues, and it turns into a neighbor rivalry.
These kinds of movies are typically comedies, where one guy pulls a variety of pranks on his neighbor, and the neighbor retaliates in his own way. This movie, though, is not a comedy, and the back-and-forth between the two neighbors is a little more sinister but still realistic.
One of the interesting things about the movie is the villain, Samuel L. Jackson, is given just as much of the spotlight as the couple. You're supposed to feel sorry for his character, even as he does his best to terrorize his neighbors. You see him in private moments where he wonders what he's doing, and you're given an explanation midway through the film of his motivations.
It's actually an interesting examination, if not brief and slight, on the status of race relations in the country. The interracial marriage side of things is the catalyst for a lot of the action of the movie, and it's definitely present the rest of the movie. But while Guess Who's Coming to Dinner made it the key element of the film, Lakeview Terrace only exposes the racism when the goings get tough.
There were some annoying parts of the film - I never really felt sorry for Chris (the husband), and I don't think a lot of his motivations were warranted. I guess they felt like, if they were going to make Samuel L. Jackson's character morally ambiguous, they needed to do the same for his enemy. Also, I couldn't help but think that he looked almost exactly like GOB from Arrested Development.
All in all, I'll give it 3/5 stars too. It isn't great, by any stretch of the imagination, but it's worth a watch if you're interested.
District 9
I saw this movie with Tucker and Ashley on Monday, and they both loved it. But when I walked out of the theater, I really didn't know whether or not I liked it or not. And, as I sit on Thursday morning, I'm still not 100% sure about how I feel.
District 9 is a different take on the alien genre. A giant ship, not unlike the ship from V or Independence Day, arrives on Earth to hover over a major city. But instead of New York, Los Angeles, Paris, London, or Tokyo...the ship lands over Johannesburg in South Africa. And instead of arriving with guns blazing like in alien invasion films, the alien ship arrives in disrepair, and many of the aliens are starving to death.
So they're taken down to Earth, immediately below their ship, and they're put into slums outside the city. In an obvious connection to apartheid in South Africa, the aliens (called "prawns" in the film) live in terrible conditions, and they're hated by the human citizens of the city. Life for the prawns is significantly restricted, and the film begins with the attempt to forcibly "evict" all of the aliens to a sort of "concentration camp" facility far away from the city.
The movie focuses on an employee of MNU, a corporation that is put in charge of watching over the aliens in the city. Because of this, you get to see a lot of aspects of life in this world - from human intolerance to the deep secrets of the slums themselves.
And while there are a lot of very intriguing aspects of the movie, at the end of it, it's a chase-based action film. And I wondered, as I was watching, how the movie would've worked if the alien part was taken out.
All in all, I think it was a pretty solid film. I don't think it was the A+ movie that Ashley said it was, but I think it was innovative and thought-provoking. I wasn't sure how the short film (Alive in Joburg, directed by the same guy who directed this) was going to translate into a feature film, but they kept a lot of the same documentary-style elements. And I really liked that they did that. It's cool that Hollywood (Peter Jackson, in particular) saw a great short film, and they allowed the director to bring his vision to a mainstream audience.
These guys (Jackson and the director) are rumored to be involved in a potential Halo movie - I hope that happens because I think it would be done well.
Final grade - 4/5
Inglourious Basterds
I'll be honest. I don't really love Quentin Tarentino as much as a lot of people. I think Pulp Fiction is really good, and I enjoyed Kill Bill Volume II. But at the end of the day, I don't really care for the rest of them. I think his films really appeal to film buffs (they're full of references to classic films, both domestic and foreign), and the over-the-top parts of his movies don't work for me.
But I still think they're worth seeing - the only film of his that I haven't seen is Jackie Brown, which is probably the least heralded of Tarantino's films. And we decided to see this movie the day we moved into Ashley's new condo.
And it's long. It's a bit slow. It's extremely tense.
But I think it's also a very-well-made movie. I actually saw it a second time when I visited Fort Worth a couple weeks ago, and I enjoyed it much more the second time around. Basically because, when you're watching it the first time around, you're pretty much waiting for something bad to happen in every scene.
First of all, there are only about five real scenes in the movie, and it's 150 minutes long. Do the math, and each scene is about 30 minutes long. And there are three major instances in the film where something unfortunate happens, but the other shoe doesn't immediately drop. So you're just sitting there, seemingly forever, going through all the possible scenarios in your mind. And since its' Tarantino, you're going over over-the-top scenarios as well.
And so most of the movie, you're waiting to see who's about to die or who's about to show up and ruin everything. And don't get me wrong, it's an interesting cinematic experience, but it's a lot like eating spicy foods. Sometimes it's just so much self-inflicted torture that you can't enjoy yourself.
That's why I definitely enjoyed the film more the second time around. Since I knew what was going to happen, I was able to enjoy the film for what it was. I was able to prepare myself for everything that was coming, and it really made the experience a lot more satisfying.
Like all of Tarantino's films, it's simply beautifully done. The casting was great, and the acting was just superb. Brad Pitt did a great job, and I fell in love with Melanie Laurent as Shoshanna. But Christoph Waltz, in his first American film, really steals the show as an SS soldier named Hans Landa. Every single second he's on the screen is tense, and he has a really brilliant way of giving his character a gentlemanly politeness for such a horrible man.
His performance, alone, makes the movie worth seeing if you ask me. I wholeheartedly expect him to get an Oscar nomination, and I can't imagine how he won't win. He was just great.
And that's why I'll give it 5/5 stars. As long as you go in with the correct expectations (that it'll be tense, that it'll gross you out at parts, that it's a Tarantino-styled film, and that it's 75% subtitled), I think you'll really enjoy it.
All in all, I didn't really hate any of these movies, and depending on your mood, you could probably like all of them. In fact, you'll probably need to be in the right mood to like any of these movies. Because you probably have to be in the right state of mind to see District 9 or Inglourious Basterds.
Feel free to post your own thoughts on each movie - I'm always interested in seeing what other people thought about things I've seen.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Pop Quiz
Don't worry, class. Just one question. It is multiple choice, and the answer might surprise you.
1. What is smarter?
a) The average JPMorgan employee
b) A dead skunk
1. What is smarter?
a) The average JPMorgan employee
b) A dead skunk
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Jean-ius Story
That's right, I went there.
So for the last two months, our company has given us the "right" to wear jeans every day. It was in honor of us doing good work or something, and it was supposed to end today.
So this morning, for the first time since June, I woke up and put on some khakis and my nice brown shoes to go to work. I arrived at 8:30, and fifteen minutes later, I received an email from management.
"Congratulations! We've extended the jeans celebration until Friday!"
Hmmm. Thanks. I'm already at work, and I'm already not wearing jeans. Couldn't you have sent this, I don't know, last night?
Needless to say, some people were upset. My coworker, who's in the process of moving, even went to the same-day dry cleaners to get clean pants at a cost of $30. I told him to see if he could get that reimbursed, but no one could even think of how to go about doing that.
And a lot of us went home for lunch and changed back into jeans. That'll show 'em.
And it got me thinking....why just extend it to Friday? Why not let us wear jeans every day? We're allowed to wear jeans every Friday, anyway, and we've been wearing jeans every day since July 1. Have we been horribly unprofessional for the last two months? Highly inefficient? If you looked at the numbers between August 31 (jeans) and September 1 (no jeans), would they be noticeable?
It isn't like we meet a lot of clients, here. Especially us poor cube monkeys...we never meet with clients. And if we ever did, we get plenty of advanced warning through email - they could tell us to dress up on certain days, and the place could look professional.
But like at my old job, it shouldn't matter what we wear. I could wear pajamas, and I'd perform my job the exact same way. I might even, you know, feel comfortable at my job. Then so many people wouldn't hate it so much.
I realize that a lot of the higher-ups are older gentlemen. On their first day of work, they were greeted by tons of old men in business suits and hats. People were professional, and that's the way it was everywhere.
Guess what? Those days are over. And while certain situations still require that sense of professionalism, most situations don't. Most places have gotten rid of ties and hats and suits altogether. Business professional in the modern cube farm is all but dead, and now is a great time to move all the way into "casual."
We're moving in the right direction - just not quickly enough. But I'm guessing that, by the time my generation is in charge, the American workplace will be a lot more comfortable. And, by association, a lot happier.
So for the last two months, our company has given us the "right" to wear jeans every day. It was in honor of us doing good work or something, and it was supposed to end today.
So this morning, for the first time since June, I woke up and put on some khakis and my nice brown shoes to go to work. I arrived at 8:30, and fifteen minutes later, I received an email from management.
"Congratulations! We've extended the jeans celebration until Friday!"
Hmmm. Thanks. I'm already at work, and I'm already not wearing jeans. Couldn't you have sent this, I don't know, last night?
Needless to say, some people were upset. My coworker, who's in the process of moving, even went to the same-day dry cleaners to get clean pants at a cost of $30. I told him to see if he could get that reimbursed, but no one could even think of how to go about doing that.
And a lot of us went home for lunch and changed back into jeans. That'll show 'em.
And it got me thinking....why just extend it to Friday? Why not let us wear jeans every day? We're allowed to wear jeans every Friday, anyway, and we've been wearing jeans every day since July 1. Have we been horribly unprofessional for the last two months? Highly inefficient? If you looked at the numbers between August 31 (jeans) and September 1 (no jeans), would they be noticeable?
It isn't like we meet a lot of clients, here. Especially us poor cube monkeys...we never meet with clients. And if we ever did, we get plenty of advanced warning through email - they could tell us to dress up on certain days, and the place could look professional.
But like at my old job, it shouldn't matter what we wear. I could wear pajamas, and I'd perform my job the exact same way. I might even, you know, feel comfortable at my job. Then so many people wouldn't hate it so much.
I realize that a lot of the higher-ups are older gentlemen. On their first day of work, they were greeted by tons of old men in business suits and hats. People were professional, and that's the way it was everywhere.
Guess what? Those days are over. And while certain situations still require that sense of professionalism, most situations don't. Most places have gotten rid of ties and hats and suits altogether. Business professional in the modern cube farm is all but dead, and now is a great time to move all the way into "casual."
We're moving in the right direction - just not quickly enough. But I'm guessing that, by the time my generation is in charge, the American workplace will be a lot more comfortable. And, by association, a lot happier.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)